Tokina 16-28 review f/2.8 AT-X PRO FX

 

Tokina 16-28 review

tokina 16-28 review
Tokina 16-28 review

Official name – Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 ATX-PRO FX

Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro review. This is a lens meant for Full frame. For crop sensored cameras the Tokina 11-16mm is much better in terms of picture quality and angle of view as well. That is a smaller and lighter lens. The sample pictures were made with the lens attached to the Canon 5dMk3 camera.

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Specifications – Tokina 16-28 review:

Focal length:16-28mm
Max aperture: f/2.8
Lens design: 15 elements in 13 groups incl 3 asph and 3 SD elements

Weight: 950g (33.5 oz)
Dimensions: 90×133 mm
Closest focus distance: 28 cm
No of aperture blades: 9
Filter size: No filter possible
Angle of view: 65.5 – 96.7 degree

Optical quality:

The lens produce nice, sharp, contrasty images. The lens is sharpest at f/5.6 at 16mm setting. At wide open the corners are a little soft, but generally the picture quality is very nice at f/5.6 at 16mm. At 28mm the lens is not so sharp as at 16mm, but the difference is small. Obviously most people want to use this lens at widest setting. Distortion is quite low for such a lens, at 14mm is perhaps the smallest. Vignetting is not huge for such a lens, and cameras like the Canon 5d III corrects it automatically. The vignetting is biggest at 16mm at f/2.8. Compare to other lenses it is not the best of the bunch like the Nikon 14-24mm, but significantly cheaper as well. Ultra wide angles not meant for portraits, but we made a try, what we can achieve.
TOKINA 16-28 REVIEW 1
TOKINA 16-28 REVIEW 2
TOKINA 16-28 REVIEW 3Click to see 1440 pix Standard jpg no post processing except resize 25% 16mm f/5.6 ISO 100 1/400s Canon 5d Mk III

TOKINA 16-28 REVIEW 4
Click to see 1440 pix f/8 1/160s ISO 100

The pictures are very nice without any post processing. With a little post-processing the lens is capable to make stunning images. The contrast level is not bad, sharpness is also quite good. With little sharpening or add little contrast or saturation and the pictures can be very high quality. For better quality perhaps Raw format is more useful than jpg. The lens seems to be very capable for landscapes or architecture. Obviously this lens is not a portrait lens, but can be used to make funny distorted images.

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Built quality:

Seems the Tokina 16-28mm lens is very solidly built, the build quality is high as usual for Tokina lenses. The zoom ring is a little stiff to my taste, but any case prevent unplanned zoom action. This is not a small lens, quite long, but not very heavy and not light either. The bulb shaped front element has a built in hood, and a cap which mounts on the lens and clamps from inside. Seems the cap is not a most reliable solution for me. It is not a small or light lens. The weight is app 1 kg. Here we can see the advantage of crop sensored cameras with half weight ultra wideangle lenses compare to Full frame cameras. The manual focus can be achieved by push pull design.

What is it good for ?

This lens is an ultra wide angle lens for a Full frame camera (UWA). This wide angle lenses is a real fun as well as the super tele lenses. This lenses make possible nice wide angle pictures inside a room, where it is not possible perhaps with normal or kit lenses or this lenses can make dramatic landscapes. The advantage of this lenses that these have a huge depth of field, meaning everything is usually in focus if we don’t make close pictures.

Switches

There are no switches, push-pull mechanism to switch to Manual focus mode. I think it is not a crucial part of this lens.

Main rivals :

Canon 16-35 I and II, Sigma 12-24 I and II versions, Samyang 14/2.8, I can compare this lens to the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, the Nikon is much better, and much more expensive as well. The Samyang 14mm is also sharper, especially at f/5.6 but has much bigger complex distortion and at wider apertures has weaker contrast. I haven’t checked the Canons yet. There are plenty of options, in different price range, most of them not so much better than the others. I don’t like the size of this lens, Sigma is much lighter and smaller for example, otherwise the quality is quite good, like contrast and sharpness, I like the small distortion, the f/2.8 brightness as well.

 Posted by at 11:07 pm